LAPD Improving LGBTQ Relations, Including New Policy to Not Assume a Transgender Person is a Hooker

Thursday night, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck is hosting a community forum that will discuss the force's new procedures for interacting with members of the transgender community. New department guidelines are being introduced, and the LAPD says in a release those procedures are "designed to promote greater understanding and ensure police contacts with the transgender community are professional, respectful and courteous."

Among the new guidelines are some matters of basic respect that actually need spelling out, including (and we quote) "the importance of not making the assumption a transgender person is involved in prostitution."

Other issues of "respectful treatment" Beck will touch on during the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) Community Forum will include a discussion of "appropriate language, acknowledgement of an individual’s preferred gender identity and expression, respect for privacy, [and] detailed standards for conducting field searches."

Plus, Beck and the LAPD are expected to talk about revisions made to the Jail Operations Manual "that improve the processing, housing, custody and protection of transgender inmates."

The community forum starts at 6 p.m. Expected to attend are city officials and LGBT community leaders, as well as reps from the mayor's office, and professionals who helped the LAPD develop their new guidelines.